Technical Field of Invention
The embodiments herein relate to an accidents alert system and, more specifically, to a method and system for alerting the users to avoid accidents.
Description of Related Art
According to the National Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), every year vehicle accidents result in averagely 35,000 deaths in the United States. Traffic collisions are the leading cause of preventable deaths in the country. The same source states that U.S. motor vehicle crashes in 2014 cost almost $1 trillion in loss of productivity and loss of life and those, not directly involved in crashes, pay for nearly three-quarters of all crash costs, primarily through insurance premiums, taxes and travel delays. On average, a person dies in a motor vehicle crash every 14 minutes, and a pedestrian dies every 2 hours in the United States.
According to information obtained from NYC Open Data, 128 accidents occurred between July 2012 to June 2015 at an intersection between Main Street and Northern Boulevard in Flushing, N.Y., which is a busy intersection where there are turn limitations on both streets at the intersection. The intersection is prone to accidents because many drivers who are not familiar with the area are trying to make a sudden left turn from Northern Boulevard onto Main Street, which is not allowed as vehicles must turn from a certain designated lane. Vehicles on Main Street must turn left from a certain designated lane to get to Northern Boulevard. However, many drivers also make sudden turns. These sudden turns from both streets result in accidents.
However, accidents may show patterns when they occur along a busy but inherently dangerous street. For example, Canal Street in Chinatown in New York City has many large intersections and many senior citizens trying to cross the street. From August 2011 to February 2014, accident statistics from NYPD Motor Vehicle Collision Reports for several points along Canal Street show a pattern of dangerous accident prone locations along that street. Additionally, in the intersection between Canal Street and Bowery Street, over 267 accidents occurred during this period, which is an average of 8.6 accidents each month. Likewise, in the intersection between Canal Street and Lafayette Street, over 186 accidents occurred during this period, which is an average of 6 accidents each month. Furthermore, in the intersection between Canal Street and Houston Street, over 168 accidents occurred during this period. One of the major current defaults for large intersections is a traffic light that operates at fixed intervals, for example 15 seconds. Many elderly people cannot cross in the allotted time, as a result, they are likely to get hurt or even die while crossing the street as compared to younger pedestrians. Furthermore, pedestrians are a cause for accidents because they do not obey the crosswalk signs when crossing the intersection. Drivers expect that pedestrians will obey the crosswalk signs when crossing, while pedestrians expect that drivers will stop their vehicle when they see pedestrians crossing.
Accidents may show patterns when they involve common participants, for example, bicyclists. The 66th Precinct of the NYPD in Brooklyn contains accident statistics which have been determined to be the area with highest number of accidents in the New York City. The most reasons for these accidents involve bicyclists on the street, which account for over 70% of accidents resulting in injuries. The statistics here show that the area under the 66th Precinct's jurisdiction is one of the most dangerous for bicyclists.
Government inaction and/or delay in taking action for various reasons are factors involved in the occurrence of accidents. Federal, state and city governments have taken various actions or measures in order to reduce the rate of accidents. For example, New York City's administration made reducing traffic deaths a major priority by initiating “Vision Zero” to lower speed limits and crack down on dangerous driving. However, the number of pedestrians killed in 2015 hasn't changed compared to the same period of 2014. Therefore, the city started implementing additional safety measures, such as street redesigns, including notoriously dangerous corridors like Queens Boulevard, in Queens, N.Y. where according to a NYPD Fatalities report from June 2015, 60 people were killed in accidents in 2014. There have been over 185 deaths from accidents alone at an intersection on Queens Boulevard since the 1990's. Likewise, at Roosevelt Ave. and 73rd Street, there have been over 591 accidents from the period of 2009 to 2013, where approximately 36% of people involved were severely injured and 6% of people died. The city government has to wait until 2018 to receive enough funding to completely redesign the above mentioned streets to make these locations safe due to budget limitations. While many areas may be known to be dangerous to the locality, the government is slow to act to rectify these dangers majorly due to funding restraints.
Another instance where the government fails to act are due to established government regulations and standards regarding when a stop sign or traffic light at a certain location is necessary. For example, an intersection located at 138th Street and 31st Road in Flushing, N.Y., is well-known to locals as a very dangerous street with limited visibility to both drivers and pedestrians because the street is slightly curved as can be seen on Google Maps™. The dangers at this intersection has caught the attention of many residents advocating the government to place a stop sign or traffic light at the location due to the public outcry. The area includes over two schools, a daycare, senior center and adult daycare, which necessitates the need for a stop sign or stop light as children and the elderly often cross the roads connecting the intersections. However, the government has failed to provide necessary prevention against future accidents because according to their studies and federal standards, the volume of vehicles, posted speed limits, and volume of accidents do not reach a level to warrant the placement of a stop sign or traffic light.
Currently, there is no effective and similar mobile application in the smart phone, web-based application or in-vehicle navigation system for reducing road/street accidents. In order to obtain the reasons for accidents at specific locations, it is important to compute accident rates which reflect accident involvement by street and other specific locations. Accident patterns can also be discovered through the processing and analysis of available accident data. For example, the frequent statistics regarding the occurrence of accidents along several points on Canal Street in New York City as mentioned above, show a pattern as to the dangers apparent in these specific locations, as well as an overall danger in the area in which Canal Street lies. If the system can analyze and determine these patterns, and will be able to use this processed data to notify users. Thus users who ride bicycles can be notified to avoid areas with a history of a high accident rate involving bicyclists. Bicyclists in the area may avoid the area entirely or receive notifications from the system alerting them to the dangerous locations in the area.
It is also crucial to implement a system where there is no need for reliance on the government's action or spend funding to rectify the street, as the users of exemplary embodiments of the present invention may report accidents, or accident data may be gathered and entered into a system about dangerous areas. The data entered needs to be processed and analyzed to provide notifications to the users to alert them of the potential dangers in specific locations in order to substantially reduce the occurrence of accidents. Thus, there is a need to develop a system to allow the users to report accidents related information about the known, dangerous locations so as to alert others to avoid further accidents.
Furthermore, it is imperative that the gathered accident data be analyzed not just for specific accident locations but for patterns within a certain area which may encompass several locations. Therefore, there is a need for a system and method to collect and analyze accident data for the purpose of sending notifications to educate the users and alert them about accident patterns and precautious measures when in particular locations.
Based on the above mentioned shortcomings, disadvantages and problems, therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method and system for the users to inform or educate them as to the causes of accidents by using historical accident data and real-time crowdsourced data contributed by the users to avoid accidents.